The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), in collaboration with industrial partners, demonstrated an unmanned aerial system (UAS) flight solely powered by fuel cell technology. The flight of the 5.6-pound 'Spider-Lion" lasted 3 hours, 19 minutes and consumed 15-grams of compressed hydrogen gas.
The 100-watt fuel cell system was designed and constructed at NRL largely using commercially available hardware and a fuel cell stack and components developed by Protonex. The "Spider-Lion" UAS was developed by NRL as a high-impact research platform for testing fuel cell technology. Research and development continues aimed at developing a fuel cell system capable of powering small military platforms currently in the field or in advanced development stages requiring extended operation that is not achievable using current battery technology.
Protonex develops and manufactures high-performance, long-duration fuel cell power systems for portable and remote applications in the 10-500W power range. Protonex products and platforms are based on patent-pending fuel cell stacks. Protonex stacks are claimed to deliver the industry's best metrics on virtually all dimensions including weight, size, durability, and lifetime performance. They have developed fuel cells that are powered by chemical hydride cartridges, direct hydrogen storage or reformers that can extract hydrogen "as-needed" from commercially available liquid fuels such as methanol, ethanol, propane, gasoline, diesel, and JP8.
The Spider-Lion project is a joint venture between NRL's Chemistry and Tactical Electronic Warfare Divisions and Protonex Technology Corporation.
Resources:
US Naval Laboratiory press release
Protonex Technology Corporation, Southborough, MA
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